Living With Cancer
A Practical Guide
In this essential guide, Dave Visel draws on expertise hard-won during his wife’s battle with lymphoma. He provides an overview of the varieties of cancer and all the basic types of treatments available. Chapters dispel common myths associated with these treatments and provide tips on nutrition and physical fitness. Visel also moves beyond the hospital to provide information and strategies to help with the emotional, practical, and financial effects of a diagnosis. Cancer patients will find the tools they need to make well-informed decisions on questions ranging from the right time to tell coworkers to whether to travel for treatment. Because medical bankruptcies affect nearly two million Americans each year, Visel devotes several chapters to financial issues. He also addresses the effects of cancer on relationships, such as how to deal with a difficult parent or whether to reconcile with an estranged spouse. In addition, Living with Cancer provides a comprehensive overview of the most useful corporate, government, and non-profit resources available. Anyone looking for help in understanding the full range of personal, professional, and legal issues associated with cancer will welcome this book. As inspiring as it is informative, it is a survival guide in the truest sense.
Every 22 seconds, 24/7, another American is found to have one of cancer's more life-threatening forms. Ideally, each of those diagnoses should be accompanied by the distribution of a copy of Dave Visel's Living with Cancer.
The possibility that this book could be available for oncologists and radiologists to hand to patients at the time of diagnosis is very appealing. We could help save an enormous amount of pain and financial loss.
Living with Cancer presents a road map that has been needed for years and should be required reading for those that seek an active role in their treatment for this dreaded disease.
Michael J. Fisch, M.D., is the medical director for the Clinical Community Oncology Program at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Preface
Acknowledgments
Quick Starts
Part I: Introduction: Setting the Stage
Part II: Orientation: Some Preliminary Introductions and Suggestions
Part III: Team Building: People Don't Beat Cancer
Teams of People Do
Part IV: Supporting Resources: An Inventory and Evaluation of Available Tools
Part V: The Illness: Help a Patient Can Use, and Things a Patient Should Know, to Make the Best of This
Part VI: Related Issues Topics You May Need to Know More About
Part VII: Relationships: Critical Elements of Patient-Partner Relationships
One More Thing ..
